Affirming the Rights of Father’s Custody of Children (Case Study)

On January 21, 2014, the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the Chancery Court of Lee County, Mississippi in the case of Edward Shannon Borden v. Mary Jane Borden.

The lower court, after denying either party a divorce, awarded full custody of the two small children of the parties to their father. The mother was given visitation rights and ordered to pay child support.

During the litigation, the wife had claimed not only was the father unfit to have custody of the children, but also had accused him of sexually molesting them. The lower court judge found these charges unfounded and simply an attempt by the mother to bolster her case for custody.

An interesting aspect to the case is that the husband was able to obtain some seventy-five (75) pages of Facebook chats between the wife and other men which contained many sexually explicit statements and references.